Chimpanzees are viewed with fondness as our closest animal relatives and are valued by scientists for the biological and evolutionary insights they provide. In spite of this, the relationships between different populations of common chimpanzees are still relatively poorly understood, a situation that potentially threatens conservation efforts.

In the search towards an HIV vaccine it is important to test the level of protection against a vaccine. This can not be done in humans and therefore research in monkeys can provide a way ahead. Rhesus monkeys can be immunised with human vaccine candidates and subsequently the level of protection provided by the vaccine candidates can be determined after infection of the animals with an adapted variant of HIV. Neutralising antibodies can protect against HIV through inactivation of the virus. The mode of action of the neutralising antibodies can be assessed by various in vitro tests.

Malaria infected red blood cells can bind to the small blood vessels inside various organs. In humans, the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum causes severe disease because this sequestration can lead to malfunctioning of the affected organs and coma in case the brain is affected. Therapeutic interventions to avoid this sequestration are currently being investigated, but the consequences of disrupting sequestration are unknown, since this can not be studied in humans.

It has been shown that immunisation with a protein part of the isolation layer of nerves can cause a MS-like disease in common marmosets. Researchers of the BPRC describe in ‘European Journal of Immunology’ the effects of this immunisation on the nervous system of the common marmoset.